There's A Thin Line Between Hate and Love
by Bibliophile Otaku2017
Summary: After an almost disastrous mission, the paladin's of Voltron find a member has vanished when the meet for dinner afterwards. Keith offers to find the missing Blue Paladin but is met with a situation he'd never thought he'd witness. One thing leads to another and maybe there's more to a rivalry then hate? (klance oneshot)
1. Hate sometimes means Love

1…2…3…4…5…6…

Keith's gaze studied the table and those who sat at it.

Him, Shiro, Hunk, Pidge, Allura and Coran…but where was Lance?

A question each member at the table was asking themselves. Gazes wondered but words reminded silent. It had been a long day. Each of the paladins were exhausted and in need of some food and rest but Lance remained unseen. An unusual occurrence at dinner time no matter the previous events of the day. The moment of silence lasted a second longer.

"…Does anyone have an idea where Lance may be?" Allura spoke up, drawing the attention of blank stares to her seat.

Their expressions alone gave away the answer. Coran rubbed the back of his head with a deep frown, "Maybe he's asleep in his room? I mean it was an eventful day."

Shiro crossed his arms and heads turned towards him. "Maybe someone should go check up on him to make sure everything's okay," he suggested.

Keith fidgeted in his seat. The deep worry weighing down his chest is what made the words spill from him mouth. Releasing a wave of shock to those at their seats.

"I'll do it."

His tone was dull and unconcerned yet everyone's eyes widened as their jaws dropped to the ground. This was the last thing they expected of him and he knew it. Lance and he were rivals. They argued, complained, fought and didn't show an ounce of care about one another unless it was in serious situations. So for him to say something so out of the blue instead of Hunk, well he couldn't help their reactions. Shiro was the first to break from his shock and smiled encouragingly.

"That would be amazing Keith, thank you," He replied.

With a blank expression Keith nodded and excused himself from the table.

* * *

The Castle was silent aside from the gentle humming of the engine and power system. The unfamiliar technology sometimes still came as a shock to Keith but he couldn't deny that the palace often felt more like home then his little house in the desert. There was just something around in the atmosphere that felt comfortable and secure. Like someone was always there to care and watch over you. He guessed that's what a home felt like.

The halls were long and lit up by small blue lights at the top of the walls. Each the same yet each lead to different destinations. He took the ones that lead down to the dorms. Not too far from the control room and with the map of the palace already in his head it made things all the more easier.

Keith mindlessly twisted and turned around corners while his thoughts twisted and turned around themselves. What was he going to say to Lance? Hopefully nothing. If the blue paladin was already asleep he didn't have plans on waking him. But the feeling in Keith's chest told him that Lance's beauty sleep wasn't going to rescue him from a conversation today. He'd had the strange feeling since he saw Lance walk out of Blue after the mission. Something seemed off in his expression as he apologized to everyone about the near capture of his lion due to his recklessness. Keith was mad at first and was ready to lecture the paladin but stopped short when for a moment, the boy's smile faltered and his eyes twinkled with what seemed to be tears. It was quick slip of his mask but enough to stop Keith in his tracks and warn him that something was up. Sure Keith hated the blue paladin majority of the time but that didn't mean he didn't care about the other's emotions when they got out of hand. He did care for the man, honestly, and that's what had cemented and block of worry in his chest.

His heart started to race when he realised he was getting close to Lance's room. Geez, Keith had no idea what was wrong with him. Maybe it was because he had never had a proper, civil conversation with Lance before but what guaranteed that this time he would. Slowly he counted his steps until he stood in front of the door.

1,2,3,4,5…10…25…35…50

And there it was. Keith stopped short, just far enough before the sensors picked up his presence. He tried to think over what to say but decided that he'd work it out.

Keith stepped in front of the door, knocking gently. "Lance? Lance, are you in there?" he called but after a minute of waiting no one answered. "Lance I'm coming in," Keith warned before stepping forward as the automatic door slid open.

The room was dark save for the line of light glaring in from the hallway. Overall all of their bedrooms where small but the view of space often made up for it. The wall beside their beds could retract into a glass window. In Lance's room, the view of space blended into the surrounding darkness. As the door shut behind Keith – cutting off the only light source - it almost gave off the illusion that you were walking in among the stars.

"Hey Lance, are you in here?" he asked quietly.

Sitting atop the bed was a figure obscuring a patch of stars from sight yet it ignored Keith's question and reminded silent. Keith wavered awkwardly at the door, unsure of what to say. So he walked forward a bit more.

"Everyone's waiting for you in the dinning room," Keith explained but yet again there was no answer. "Lance? Are you okay?" he finally asked.

The figure shifted but remained silent. So there was something wrong. Keith walked up to the bed and took a seat next to Lance who had wrapped himself up in his blanket. His face was hidden in the darkness but Keith swore he could see something shimmer. Just great. He had no clue how to deal with these kinds of things so why did he volunteer for it in the first place? Stupid, stupid.

The two sat in silence for a while. Staring out into space. Keith counting the stars, guessing/making up constellations among the tiny dots. Lance glancing to the boy beside him every now and again, his mouth parting open before closing again. Unspoken words were forming a lump at the back of his throat making breathing a difficult task as he fought tears away.

Back at home, even with such a big family, Lance had only ever truly broken down in front of his mother. The one person he trusted and knew wouldn't judge him for his ridiculous judgments about himself. It wasn't often he had those thoughts. I mean he had a great family who loved him, he had friends who he could make laugh and he had achieved majority of what he had worked so hard for. But like every other human, Lance had his bad days. Where sometimes the constant stress became too much or too many negative comments or failures brought him back to the darkness everyone knew. In those times, that is where he would turn to his mother for support. But this time she wasn't here. Her hugs, kisses and comforting words were all the way back on earth. She wasn't here to tell him everything would be okay even though Lance had almost lost the blue lion today due to his recklessness behavior. Maybe because it wasn't okay. The Blue Lion was an important piece of Voltron, without it the universe would fall into Zarkon's hands. And if Lance was naïve enough to have it stolen because of his stupid behavior then what was his worth in the team?

Keith shifted beside him, reminding him that he wasn't alone. Lance looked down and almost chuckled as a thought popped into his head.

"Uh…Keith?" Lance spoke up, hesitant.

The other's head snapped up with wide eyes at his voice. Even in the darkness, Lance's eyes had adjusted to lack of lighting so the mixture of shock and patience that outlined Keith's features was a comforting familiarity.

"Yeah?" he answered.

Lance took a deep breath, fire at the end of his nerves. "Do – uh – do you ever doubt yourself sometimes?" He asked, pulling the blanket tighter around his head, refusing to make eye contact.

Keith was taken aback by the question. No one had ever asked him such a thing before and he didn't really think about it very much. "Well…uh," he scratched the back of his head, "Of course, not all the time, but yeah."

Lame. He was so lame. Although despite Keith's inner accusations, Lance smile faintly. He never expected a better answer from Keith no matter how much he hated him sometimes. Well maybe hate wasn't the word. Keith turned to look at the other boy, sudden thoughts entering his head.

"Lance?" He whispered cautiously. The blue paladin's head turned to face Keith, despite his face hidden behind a veil of shadows. Keith squinted trying to make out the rollercoaster of emotions Lance must be riding on to ask such a question. Yet with no results he asked anyways. "Do you doubt yourself? Your value to Voltron? Your importance to this team?" he relayed the questions to him.

Silence.

Keith resisted the urge to curse under his breath. He hated being right on occasions such as these. There was a rustle of sheets as Lance pulled the blanket down to completely cover his face. The action almost made Keith's heart crack. Although the reality of the situation didn't come as much of a surprise to the red paladin. They were the defenders of the universe, they were paladins of Voltron, they fought battles, rescued planets and it's inhabitance, they flew between the stars in an alien ship with alien allies from a destroyed planet. Sure they had a lot of responsibility to uphold but in the end they were still teenagers. Leaving Earth didn't change that. Finding the Lions didn't change that. Nothing could of changed that. Each and every one of them are still trying to figure out their place in this universe, so of course there are going to be moments where one of them break or have doubts about themselves. It's what teenagers are best at. Keith would know. That didn't make the situation any better though.

"Well if you're not going to answer, could you at least share some of the blanket? It's freezing in here," Keith asked ignoring the subject for a minute because it really was cold in the metal room.

The other hesitated but eventually Lance pulled the blanket off his head and handed the whole thing to Keith, who shook his head at the gesture. He shuffled closer until their knees were touching and wrapped one corner of the blanket around his should before snaking his arm behind Lance's back and flung the other corner over his shoulder, moving his arms back so he could pull both corners together between them. Keith kept a stoic face but the slight red ting on his pale cheeks was ever present even if it was hidden. In the end the two were wrapped up comfortably, side by side, in the warmth of the blanket and each other.

"K-Keith?" Lance stuttered confused.

The red paladin waved a hand in the air, dismissing any upcoming question on statement. Lance closed his mouth trying to ignore the heat rushing to his own cheeks. Had he said something? What was Keith doing?

"You're an important part of Voltron Lance and not just because you pilot the blue lion," Keith began, staring expressionlessly at the stars behind the glass. "Because in all honesty, we're not the best team there could be out there to protect the universe, majority of the time we've got no fucking clue on what to do when in a battle against the galra even if there is a plan to follow. Whether we've succeeded so far because we're lucky or something else, I have no idea, but somehow we've managed to do it and I think one of the reasons why is because of you."

When Keith glanced to the side, Lance's head was still bowed as he stared at some spot in front of him. "Despite everything we've been through so far, we're still only teenagers and dealing with stuff like this is hard, even for me. Yet after every mission you manage to make every room you walk into lighter, you make people laugh no matter what mood they're in or what situation we may have dealt with earlier. You…you have a talent to pull people out of their darkest abysses with a few simple words or a smile and that is something none of us could ever do. Lance I believe if you weren't apart of this team, if you weren't our sharpshooter, then we wouldn't have come as far as we have now because people succumb to their deepest and darkest thoughts when faced with situations like these. One by one we all would have broken, unable to form Voltron, unable to stop the universe from falling into Zarkon's hands. You may be annoying but you bring light into the world when all we can see is darkness and I'm sorry that we don't thank you for it as we should but I want you to know and remember that without you, we would have fallen and everyone we care for would have been domed into a future of pain and loss. So for all the times we haven't said it, thank you Lance, thank you."

Silence fell.

Keith fidgeted where he sat. No one said anything more and he believed that was what made his heart beat dramatically in his chest. Waiting for a response was agonising. Did he say the wrong things? Was he not clear enough? God, he had no idea but he wished Lance would just say something! Finally there was a wet chuckle.

"Never thought you'd say something like that, us being rivals and all," Lance whispered with a trembling voice.

Keith smiled, still staring at the stars. "You were the one who started the rivalry," He pointed out, "In retrospect I never thought of you as a rival, sure you annoyed me to no extent and that's the main reason why I continued our little arguments but I never thought of you as a rival, more like an inspiring companion."

That had done it. There as a loud sob catching Keith's attention as his head flung around and saw something small fall onto the blanket. He looked at Lance who was now holding his head in his hands. He felt the blanket move as the blue paladin's shoulders shook. Keith froze for a moment. Lance was crying. Lance was crying! Never before had he thought he'd whiteness such a thing, he'd hoped he'd never have to. Lance's sobs echoed through his chest. Unsure on what he should do, Keith reached forward – letting the blanket fall from their shoulders – and wrapped an arm around Lance with a hand resting on the back of his head and pulled him against his chest.

Instead of the expected rejection, the broken boy turned around so his body was facing Keith and laid his head on his shoulder, sobbing as his hands clenched onto his black top. Keith's arms temporarily removed themselves from Lance in shock before regaining himself and wrapping them back around the Lance's shaking body, hold him firmly against his chest. He was never going to let Lance break, even if that meant he had to hold the boy together himself, so be it. Keith ran a comforting hand through sobbing boy's brown hair, unconcerned about moving anytime soon. No words needed to be said as the two boys held onto each other like they were all they had left in the universe.

* * *

Shiro, Pidge, Hunk, Allura and Coran walked together down to the bedrooms. Keith and Lance had been missing for some time bringing up the decision to go check up on them just in case. When they reached Lance's bedroom (the first guess) Shiro gently knocked on the door calling for anyone inside. When no answer came, Pidge suggested the check inside just to make sure. So as the other's hung back, Shiro stepped in front of the sensors and the door slid open soundlessly. The room was pitch black. He could barely see anything in front of his nose once the door closed behind him.

"Lance? Keith?" He called silently.

Still though, there was no answer. Frowning, Shiro reached over to a switch that turned the lights on. A small chuckle escaped his lips as he was met with the scene before him. Lance and Keith laid on the bed, soundlessly asleep in one another's arms. It was a rare and amusing sight that made Shiro wish he had a camera with him to capture the moment. Smiling he turned the light back off.

"Finally," he thought as he exited the room.

"Well are they in there?" Pidge questioned.

"Yes, they're fine, and I think it would be best if we left them to themselves for the night," Shiro answered, "They can get their own food tomorrow or if they wake up latter."

And with that he began walking back to the dining room. Every glancing at one another with confused expressions as they wondered what Shiro had seen behind the door.

* * *

 **thank you for reading. Sorry if it was rushed I try not to but that's how my writing ends up sometimes. Anyways I might do more but probably not so thank you once again for reading and I wish you an amazing day!**


	2. Hate sometimes means love part 2

The night was a long and peaceful one. The two paladin's slept soundly in one another's arms. There was no fear of nightmares nor memories of the past. There was not hatred or rivalry. There was no cold to seep between the two bodies. Only warmth and a new found comfort, maybe even something more. Given the circumstances, the only light that flooded into the room was not that of the sun filtered through windows, but instead automatic lights shining from the ceiling. A signal that the sleeping hours had ended yet despite this, the two lumps on the bed made no sign of waking let alone leaving. Faint snores was the only evidence of life in the room. A few footsteps echoed outside the door but no one dared to wake those sleeping inside the bedroom. Shiro's explanation of what was behind the closed door left everyone in the castle in a state of giddy excitement as they waiting for the two to emerge.

Lance shifted in the bed an hour after everyone else in the castle had woken up. One of his arms laid trapped under Keith's neck while the other rested on his stomach. Waking up was never one of Lance's strong suits. Even during emergencies it takes a few minutes, even more, for the blue paladin to completely wake up and be aware of his surroundings. So at this moment, Lance's eyes only opened half way. Staring at nothing in particular as his brain failed to register the metal roof but somehow feeling the hot breath brushing against his shoulder. Acting on instincts Lance turned around wrapping his free arm behind the body in his bed. Snuggling his head in the space under the stranger's jaw. Cuddling him like a teddy bear. As a child who often spent many nights sleeping with his mother due to restless nightmares that plagued his dreams, Lance had developed a comforting habit of hugging her during his sleep by accident. It reminded him that she was still there and majority of the time, feeling her chest rise and fall was the only lullaby that lulled him to sleep on his worse nights. Yet somehow, feeling the stranger's chest move with each breath was more comforting than his mother's. His breathing also sounded much softer to his ears. Making him completely melt into the stranger. Pulling him closer. Taking in his smell.

Although Lance's fuzzy brain also failed to notice the person waking up due to his tight hold. It took Keith a minute at the least to figure out what was happening. He was shocked of course but the emotion was soon overwhelmed with a wave of warmth that flooded his chest. A rare smile pulled at the corner of his mouth. It…it was nice. Lance's touch. During his life, Keith never knew what a mother's comforting touch was like and barley remembered what it felt like to be held by his father. Those facts didn't bother him much growing up because how could someone crave something they barley remembered? Sure he's been hugged by friends before but the way Lance was holding him now…it felt different. An odd feeling unable to be put into exact words but his best explanation or guess was, it is what it feels like to be hugged by a loved one. To crave their touch was something Keith had never experience before. Yet in this moment, he didn't want Lance to let go. He didn't want it to end, he wanted to be held by this person until the end of time. What was wrong with him?

"Are you always this clingy?" Keith questioned, without complaint but Lance didn't need to know that.

The boy resting under his chin slowly pulled away but a hand lingered on Keith's waist. Lance look up at him with bleary eyes. The red paladin could almost see his brain twisting and turning as it tried to figure out what was happening.

"Keith?"

There it was. Keith continued to smile as he lifted a hand and lightly flicked sleepy boy's forehead. Resulting in a whinny moan of protest. "Who else?"

Lance removed his hand from Keith waist (to his dismay) and rubbed his forehead with a deep scowl. One that the red paladin was often seen wearing. "Well a good morning to you too," he grumbled with a croaky throat. Last night's events were still evident in the grouchy boy. Even his eyes still retained the puffy, red look.

"How are you feeling?" Keith blurted out.

Lance looked up at him with hazy eyes and a raised eyebrow. Still he got no answer as instead Lance burrowed his head back into Keith's chest. The red paladin chuckled lightly. Obviously the boy still wasn't fully awake yet but at the very least he seemed okay. Last night's storm had come to pass and with it came a new found relationship. Keith wrapped his arms back around Lance, savoring the feeling of the boy's warm breath against his chest. Even in Lance's fogged up brain, there was something about Keith's presence that calmed him, drawing him back into a deep slumber. Last night's advents became an unimportant blur. Maybe he wasn't as alone up here as he had first thought.

* * *

"So is there something you want to tell me?" Shiro asked curiously. Keith noticed that if he looked close enough a cheeky smirk ghosted over the older man's lips.

It was about midday in Earth hours when he had decided to slip from the blue paladin's grip, leaving for some much needed food considering he had missed dinner. Shiro was already settled at the bench when he walked in. The others were nowhere to be seen. Keith was getting ready to fill two bowls of food goo - one for Lance if he got hungry after he woke up – when Shiro asked the question. He almost spilt food goo all over the counter.

"W-what?" he stuttered turning to face the smug man.

Shiro laid his cheek on his open palm, staring up at Keith with raised eyebrows. "I'm talking about you and Keith last night," he answered, "You're lucky it was only me who saw you two together."

Keith groaned, rubbing the back of his neck. "Look, Lance was having a really bad night and I couldn't just leave him alone, I had to do something," he tried to explained but Shiro's grin only widened.

"And by doing something that meant sleeping with him?"

"I have a feeling I know what you're thinking nothing like that happened!"

Shiro laughed at the Keith's flustered reaction. Hey, no one said that Space Dad couldn't have a little fun. "Keith, Keith, I'm joking," he chuckled, "Even so we all knew there was something between you two, honestly it was more of a relief to see you two together then it was a surprise."

"Relief?" Keith repeated.

Shiro got up from his seat and placed a hand on Keith's shoulder. "It was a relief because I was beginning to worry that you two would ignore the feelings you had for each other," he explained, "So congrats man."

And with that he left. Keith's jaw dropped as he stared at the hall Shiro had exited down. He couldn't just leave like that?! Did everyone know about their feelings for one another except them?! Resting his elbows on the bench, Keith held his head in his hands. A dark blush burned his cheeks red. He couldn't believe it.

* * *

It only took a week for the team to get over the newfound relationship between the red and blue paladin. Although Pidge was often found sneaking behind the two with an altean camera. When it came to sleeping hours, it was very rare to find Lance sleeping without his other half. He had explained to Keith that when they were together the nightmares and memories of the past never came to disturbed his sleep. Keith agreed. Neither could bare to be apart.

And that's how they wanted to stay. Together. Who knew a long lasting rivalry could lead to something completely opposite?

* * *

 **Hey! wasn't sure if I was gonna do another chapter yet here we are! Sorry it's a lot shorter but I'm fairly happy with it and I hope you are too.**

 **I WANT TO GIVE A BIG THANKS TO _The Best Guesst_** **WHO GAVE ME THE IDEA FOR THIS NEW CHAPTER (I hope you liked it, if not then that's okay :D)**

 **Also guys if you would like to message me voltron oneshots or stories ideas that you've always wanted to read, I might make a separate book for them specifically. Contact me them through here or dm my instagram account:** bibliophile._.ostaku


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